POWELLS SPEECH:
Inflation "remains above" the U.S. Federal Reserve's 2% target, but has been improving in recent months and "more good data would strengthen" the case for central bank interest rate cuts, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday in congressional testimony.
In comments that appeared to show increasing faith that inflation will return to the Fed's target, a requirement for easing monetary policy, Powell compared the lack of progress on that front in the first months of the year to recent improvement that has helped build the Fed's confidence that price pressures will continue to diminish.